Elhadji M Gueye 10/10/2015
Kent F Schull History of Islam
Essay prompt # 1
A famous historian and sociologist in the 14th century named Ibn Khaldun who developed one of the most outstanding model to describe nomadic societies and their lifestyles. Ibn
Khaldun analyze the different forms of governments, explaining their strengths and weaknesses by presenting the 4 steps of his model to reveal the cyclical rises and declines of dynasties. I'm using Ibn Khaldun's model to explain the history of the Umayyad dynasty and Abbasid dynasty.
Throughout the 7-13th centuries, Islamic history, empires have risen and fallen and been replaced by one after another. It started during the period of the prophet Muhammad and the four rightly guided caliphs and …show more content…
This led to them losing they attributes as a Bedouin Arab and understand the new lifestyle quickly.
Further, the Umayyads dynasty held the authority of the caliphate and people started to notice the superiority of the Bedouin Arabs and the element of luxury. After they decided to move the capital to the damascus in Syria where the governor Mu'awiya resided. He became the first caliphate to establish a throne for himself and this is a form of superiority.
According Ibn Khaldun this is a sign of a falling empire is when the leader put himself in a superior position by establishing a throne. This relate to step four of Ibn Khaldun model because during this stage of the dynasty the leaders increased their ruling through bureaucracy of clients. Whereas the soldiers who were their former supporters lose their fighting ability that a nomadic lifestyle fostered. These soldiers had a higher status than the civilians and become corrupted with the ethical luxury life. The luxury lifestyle increased the growth of the population and the royal authority demanded higher taxes to maintain the luxury lifestyle. Therefore they become isolated from the people that brought them up to power. Lastly they will rely …show more content…
After the Abbasid took over the weakened
Umayyad dynasty and they moved the capital to Baghdad. Ibn Khaldun model started again with the new era of Abbasid dynasty.
Furthermore the new rule of the dynasty known as Abu Ja'far laid the foundation for the
Abbasid Empire and named it Al-Mansur which means "the victor". The Abbasid hold on to their tribal virtues and solidarity which was a "bitter pill for the Arab elites who benefitted from
Umayyad policies." Soon the Abbasids seek to apply all the authority in their own hands.
Whereas the Arab elites was losing their privileged position in the courts and they also were replaced by the khorasani guard in the army. However the Arabs and non-Arabs was peacefulness with the new government due to the fact that they did not favor any particular groups. The notion of the dynasty was lay on spirituality and equality for all Muslims. Later on the Abbasid leaders focused on government power to claim the glory to themselves. Then caliphate became shielded from the public. One example is "only the most important officials and foreign guests were allowed in the presence of the caliph." This reveal that there
Kent F Schull History of Islam
Essay prompt # 1
A famous historian and sociologist in the 14th century named Ibn Khaldun who developed one of the most outstanding model to describe nomadic societies and their lifestyles. Ibn
Khaldun analyze the different forms of governments, explaining their strengths and weaknesses by presenting the 4 steps of his model to reveal the cyclical rises and declines of dynasties. I'm using Ibn Khaldun's model to explain the history of the Umayyad dynasty and Abbasid dynasty.
Throughout the 7-13th centuries, Islamic history, empires have risen and fallen and been replaced by one after another. It started during the period of the prophet Muhammad and the four rightly guided caliphs and …show more content…
This led to them losing they attributes as a Bedouin Arab and understand the new lifestyle quickly.
Further, the Umayyads dynasty held the authority of the caliphate and people started to notice the superiority of the Bedouin Arabs and the element of luxury. After they decided to move the capital to the damascus in Syria where the governor Mu'awiya resided. He became the first caliphate to establish a throne for himself and this is a form of superiority.
According Ibn Khaldun this is a sign of a falling empire is when the leader put himself in a superior position by establishing a throne. This relate to step four of Ibn Khaldun model because during this stage of the dynasty the leaders increased their ruling through bureaucracy of clients. Whereas the soldiers who were their former supporters lose their fighting ability that a nomadic lifestyle fostered. These soldiers had a higher status than the civilians and become corrupted with the ethical luxury life. The luxury lifestyle increased the growth of the population and the royal authority demanded higher taxes to maintain the luxury lifestyle. Therefore they become isolated from the people that brought them up to power. Lastly they will rely …show more content…
After the Abbasid took over the weakened
Umayyad dynasty and they moved the capital to Baghdad. Ibn Khaldun model started again with the new era of Abbasid dynasty.
Furthermore the new rule of the dynasty known as Abu Ja'far laid the foundation for the
Abbasid Empire and named it Al-Mansur which means "the victor". The Abbasid hold on to their tribal virtues and solidarity which was a "bitter pill for the Arab elites who benefitted from
Umayyad policies." Soon the Abbasids seek to apply all the authority in their own hands.
Whereas the Arab elites was losing their privileged position in the courts and they also were replaced by the khorasani guard in the army. However the Arabs and non-Arabs was peacefulness with the new government due to the fact that they did not favor any particular groups. The notion of the dynasty was lay on spirituality and equality for all Muslims. Later on the Abbasid leaders focused on government power to claim the glory to themselves. Then caliphate became shielded from the public. One example is "only the most important officials and foreign guests were allowed in the presence of the caliph." This reveal that there